In the previous section we learned how the collective divine soul of Israel divides into six hundred thousand individual souls, with each particular soul assigned its own portion in the work of refinement. Now let us look at the Alter Rebbe's own words inside.
The Alter Rebbe continues: «וכאשר כללות נפש האלוקית שבכללות ישראל, שמתחלקת בפרטות לשישים ריבוא, תקיים כל נפש פרטית כל תרי"ג מצוות התורה» (And when the collective divine soul of the Jewish people, which divides into six hundred thousand particulars, will have each individual soul fulfill all 613 mitzvos of the Torah) - and he then spells out the two categories of mitzvos:
The 365 prohibitions:
«שס"ה לא תעשה - להפריד שס"ה גידים של דם נפש החיונית שבגוף, שלא ינקו ויקבלו חיות בעבירה זו מאחת משלוש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, שמהן נשפעים שס"ה לא תעשה דאורייתא וענפיהן שהן מדרבנן» (The 365 prohibitions serve to separate the 365 sinews of the blood of the vital soul in the body, so that through such a transgression they should not draw and receive vitality from one of the three completely impure kelipos, from which the 365 Torah prohibitions and their rabbinic branches derive). When a person violates a prohibition, at that very moment he is drawing vitality from the source of evil. And this is not only about the 365 prohibitions themselves, but about every branch and detail of them: the decrees and safeguards the Sages instituted to keep us far from them.
Every such failure draws vitality from the side of evil, and when the soul becomes attached to that kind of vitality, there are cases that can be cleansed with relatively light teshuvah, and there are matters that have no remedy in that way at all, and we must wait for the coming of Moshiach. In the Alter Rebbe's words: «ושוב לא תוכל נפש החיונית לעלות אל ה' אם נטמאה בטומאת השלוש קליפות הטמאות שאין להן עלייה לעולם» (And then the vital soul can no longer ascend to G-d, if it has been defiled by the impurity of the three impure kelipos, which never have any ascent). Whatever grew and was built out of an evil kelipah cannot rise upward, for «לא יגורך רע» (evil cannot dwell with You).
A permitted thing, by contrast, can be elevated. Take someone who ate kosher food and did not use the strength he received from it for anything good, but also did nothing evil with it: the time simply passed and nothing came of it. When he does teshuvah, he will be able to elevate those energies too. [A simple illustration: on Sunday he ate kosher food and did nothing with it; on Monday he did teshuvah and began doing good. How did he arrive at Monday? By the energy of Sunday. It turns out that with the good he does on Monday he draws Sunday upward along with it. But all of this applies only if the thing was permitted; something that comes from the three completely impure kelipos does not rise at all, and remains a dead weight dragged along with the person, G-d forbid.]
Therefore one must be careful not to stumble in any of the prohibitions. But that alone is not enough: keeping the prohibitions means not bringing the filth in, and now the other side is demanded of us: bringing the beautiful furnishings into the dwelling.
The 248 positive commandments:
«ורמ"ח מצוות עשה - להמשיך אור אין סוף ברוך הוא למטה, להעלות לו ולקשר ולייחד בו כללות הנפש החיונית שברמ"ח איברי הגוף ביחוד גמור, להיות לאחדים ממש, כמו שעלה ברצונו יתברך להיות לו דירה בתחתונים» (And the 248 positive commandments serve to draw down the Ein Sof light below, to raise up to Him and to bind and unite with Him the entirety of the vital soul in the 248 limbs of the body in complete union, so that they become literally one, as it arose in His will that He have a dwelling in the lower realms). The function of the positive mitzvos is to sanctify the dwelling, the world and the body, and to unite them with the Ein Sof light.
With each and every mitzvah a person sanctifies his portion in the world, and those portions become rectified. Today the result is not visible to the eye, but when Moshiach comes each person will be able to identify his portion: here is the river from which came the fish he brought in for Shabbos and elevated to holiness, and along with them that entire river rose up through the power of the good intention of the Shabbos meal. That is the goal, and there is no way to reach it other than through constant work, rectifying portion after portion.
«ומאחר שכללות נפש החיונית שבכללות ישראל תהיה מרכבה קדושה לה'» (And once the entirety of the vital soul in the Jewish people becomes a holy chariot for G-d), that is, when the Jewish people as a whole, those six hundred thousand, complete their work and each one does his part. The Rambam already wrote that no one can exempt himself from this: «The Torah has promised that Israel will ultimately do teshuvah at the end of their exile, and immediately they are redeemed.» In the end each one will do his share; if not willingly, he will be led there by another route, but he will arrive.
What will happen when the work is complete:
«אזי גם כללות החיות של עולם הזה, שהיא קליפת נוגה עכשיו, תצא אז מטומאתה וחלאתה ותעלה לקדושה להיות מרכבה לה', בהתגלות כבודו - 'וראו כל בשר יחדיו', ויופיע עליהם בהדר גאון עוזו, וימלא כבוד ה' את כל הארץ» (Then the entire vitality of this world as well, which is now kelipas nogah, will emerge from its impurity and dross and ascend to holiness, to become a chariot for G-d through the revelation of His glory: «and all flesh together shall see», and He will shine upon them in the majestic splendor of His might, and the glory of G-d will fill all the earth). All those portions of the world that are today kelipas nogah will be refined, and when the refinement is complete the entire world will rise to holiness.
This does not mean that the world will be nullified and cease to exist. The world will go on existing; it is just that it will be openly evident that everything is a chariot for G-d. The factories in China and Japan will keep running, except that then even the foreman on the floor will plainly see that the purpose of the factory is so that Jews should be able to fulfill mitzvos, and that one must hurry, because there are still such and such good deeds left to do. That is the purpose today as well, since the entire world was created for it, but today it is not evident, and in the future it will be revealed.
An analogy: a highway leading to the city. Along its whole length there are signs posted - toward Jerusalem, so many more kilometers - and it is obvious that the entire road, including the cutting through the mountain, was built in order to reach Jerusalem. So too it will be revealed in spiritual terms that the whole world leads to one single destination.
The nations of the world will recognize the truth of all this, and it will be a privilege for them to assist the divine purpose: «ויופיע עליהם» (He will shine upon them), upon them and upon the entire world, «וימלא כבוד ה' את כל הארץ» (and the glory of G-d will fill all the earth): every land and every nation, and all will see that the whole world leads to the goal. For a Jew, however, it will be on an entirely different level: «וישראל יראו עין בעין, ככתוב 'אתה הראת לדעת כי ה' הוא האלוקים אין עוד מלבדו'» (And Israel will see eye to eye, as it is written: «You have been shown to know that G-d is the L-rd, there is none else besides Him»), an inner and absolute union with G-dliness, as it was at Mattan Torah, when there was complete revelation, as we have already learned.
The nullification of the three impure kelipos:
Kelipas nogah will be transformed into holiness - and what will become of the three completely impure kelipos? «ועל ידי זה יתבלעו ויתבטלו לגמרי כל השלוש קליפות הטמאות, כי יניקתן וחיותן מהקדושה עתה היא על ידי קליפת נוגה הממוצעת ביניהן» (And through this all three impure kelipos will be swallowed up and utterly nullified, for their present sustenance and vitality from holiness comes by way of kelipas nogah, which is the intermediary between them). There is a hierarchy and a sequence here: kelipas nogah receives from holiness, and the three impure kelipos receive from kelipas nogah. Once kelipas nogah turns into holiness, the three impure kelipos will have nothing left to grasp onto.
And what is something that comes from the three impure kelipos? All forbidden foods come from there, and they cannot be turned into holiness. But one must distinguish between the different aspects within any given thing:
Something forbidden to eat but permitted to benefit from: a horse, for instance, is not a kosher animal; nevertheless, a Jew who rides it in order to save another Jew or to do some good deed thereby elevates the aspect of it that can be elevated. Likewise a cow that was not slaughtered properly and became a neveilah: it is forbidden to eat, but it may be sold to a non-Jew, and the money is kosher and may be used for a good purpose.
Something forbidden even to derive benefit from: meat cooked with milk is forbidden not only to eat but even to benefit from. Therefore, someone who owns a meat-and-milk factory, even if he takes a large sum from its profits and builds a shul with it, has not elevated anything to holiness, since it is forbidden to derive benefit from it.
And why will the three impure kelipos be unable to exist in the future? An analogy: there is a white market, entirely legitimate and aboveboard; there is a black market, where people steal and everything is forbidden; and there is a gray market, where the money gets laundered. As long as the gray market exists, the thieves have a livelihood. The moment the gray market is eliminated, the black market collapses with it, because the thief will have no way to sell what he stole or do anything with it, since all the vitality of the black comes through the gray. The same is true spiritually: holiness is the ultimate truth, the three impure kelipos are absolute evil, and absolute evil survives only by way of the intermediary, kelipas nogah; once that is nullified, so is it.
The conclusion of all this:
«ונמצא כי כל תכלית ימות המשיח ותחיית המתים, שהוא גילוי כבודו ואלוקותו יתברך ולהעביר רוח הטומאה מן הארץ - תלוי בהמשכת אלוקותו יתברך ואור אין סוף ברוך הוא לנפש החיונית שבכללות ישראל בכל רמ"ח איבריה, על ידי קיומה כל רמ"ח מצוות עשה; ולהעביר רוח הטומאה ממנה בשמירתה משס"ה לא תעשה, שלא ינקו ממנה שס"ה גידיה» (It emerges that the entire purpose of the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead, which is the revelation of His glory and G-dliness and the removal of the spirit of impurity from the earth, depends on drawing His G-dliness and the Ein Sof light into the vital soul of the Jewish people in all its 248 limbs, through its fulfillment of all 248 positive commandments; and on removing the spirit of impurity from it by guarding it from the 365 prohibitions, so that its 365 sinews should not draw from it). The goal is the revelation of G-dliness in the world in the most absolute way and the removal of the spirit of impurity from the earth, and it depends on us: on fulfilling the 248 positive mitzvos, through which a person draws G-dliness downward, and on guarding against the 365 prohibitions, through which he refrains from channeling vitality into forbidden places.
The Creator, as it were, is waiting: the King says that He wishes to enter the dwelling - bring in furniture, light the place up, take out the filth, and I will come. And this depends on each and every Jew, since the number of Jews corresponds precisely to the number of portions in the world that need refining, and each one has his own portion.
«כי כללות ישראל של שישים ריבוא נשמות פרטיות הם כללות החיות של כללות העולם, כי בשבילם נברא» (For the collective of Israel, the six hundred thousand individual souls, are the collective vitality of the entire world, since it was created for their sake), as is already hinted in the very first word of the Torah, «בראשית ברא אלוקים», which Rashi explains: for the sake of Israel, who are called «reishis», and for the sake of the Torah, which is called «reishis».
«וכל פרט מהם הוא כולל ושייך לו החיות של חלק אחד משישים ריבוא מכללות העולם, התלוי בנפשו החיונית להעלותו לה' בעלייתה» (And each individual among them contains, and belongs to, the vitality of one six-hundred-thousandth of the entire world, which depends on his vital soul to raise it up to G-d along with its own ascent). Each and every person has a corner of the world waiting for him, a corner only he can rectify. A person does not know where it is, and therefore «מה' מצעדי גבר כוננו» (a man's steps are established by G-d), and he must do good at every time and in every place, lest he miss his portion.
Great tzaddikim know not only what they themselves must rectify, but even what those connected to them must rectify; this is why a tzaddik tells one person to travel and settle in a particular place, and his friend in another, so that each one should rectify his own portion of the world. This is also the root of shlichus, which was newly instituted in our generation by the Rebbe in a way unprecedented in earlier generations: shluchim in every corner of the globe. For there is no time left, and the sanctification of the world must be brought to completion. It is no longer possible to wait for everyone to be concentrated in one place with the influence reaching outward like ripples spreading from a stone thrown into the sea, which grow weaker the farther out they go until they are negligible. Therefore, «one of you is exiled to Barbaria and one of you is exiled to Samatria», in the language of the Midrash: each one to his place, and in this way all the sparks are gathered in and the world becomes sanctified.
And how does a person fulfill his task? «דהיינו במה שמשתמש מעולם הזה לצורך גופו ונפשו החיונית לעבודת ה', כגון אכילה ושתייה ודומיהן ודירה וכל כלי תשמישיו» (Namely, through whatever he uses of this world for the needs of his body and vital soul in the service of G-d, such as eating and drinking and the like, and his dwelling and all his utensils). When a person uses everything he has for the service of G-d - drives his car to davening, uses it to raise his family in Torah and mitzvos and to carry out good deeds - he is refining not only his car, but also the one who manufactured it and the mechanic who services it. Every small act lifts up further portions of the world, and we bear responsibility for a great many details bound up with it.
«אלא ששישים ריבוא נשמות פרטיות אלו הן שורשים, וכל שורש מתחלק לשישים ריבוא ניצוצות, שכל ניצוץ הוא נשמה אחת; וכן בנפש ורוח בכל עולם מארבעה עולמות אצילות בריאה יצירה עשייה» (Except that these six hundred thousand individual souls are roots, and each root subdivides into six hundred thousand sparks, each spark being a single soul; and likewise in nefesh and ruach in each of the four worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah). There are particulars and particulars within particulars here, branches and sub-branches, all of which need to be rectified. Each person completes his own detail, and his fellow completes the detail set opposite him.
[From this it is understood that there are souls that come from one and the same root. Some explain on this basis the special sense of closeness that sometimes arises between people and between spouses: a bond rooted in their source above.]
To summarize: We learned that when every individual soul of Israel fulfills the 613 mitzvos - the 365 prohibitions, which prevent the 365 sinews from drawing on the three impure kelipos, and the 248 positive commandments, which draw the Ein Sof light into the 248 limbs of the body - the vital soul of the Jewish people as a whole becomes a holy chariot for G-d. And then kelipas nogah too, which is the entire vitality of this world, will emerge from its impurity and ascend to holiness, and along with it the three impure kelipos will be nullified, since all their sustenance comes by way of it. It follows that the entire purpose of the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead depends on our deeds, on the work of each and every Jew in the portion of the world entrusted to his hands.
The point of all this is simple and clear: our avodah is the responsibility to bring about wholeness and rectification in the whole of creation. If we could see the results, we would already today be dancing with joy at the sight of a perfected and rectified world, waiting for that one second - and we do not know why it is being delayed - of the coming of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. Consider how many Jews have put on tefillin since Mattan Torah, over the course of more than three thousand years, and how many good deeds have been done all over the world; the world has long since been filled with the ultimate good. All that is left for us is to pray, to ask and to plead that the Creator finally open the box, take out the great savings stored up inside it, and bring the Redemption to us all.